Wacom Intuos Graphire tablet GD-0608-R between XP and W7

** Updated 26th February 2024 - it seems some users have managed to coax a Graphire into operation in Windows 64 bit OS using serial-USB adaptors as described in the reader comments. The details I described below were correct at the time (ten years+ ago) in reference to 32 bit OS and Wacom were very explicit about (not) using it in 64 bit Windows.

I tried various drivers and adaptors in that era without success, and I don't give up easily. I now have a Huion tablet which is nothing like as good as the Wacom was. If you have the old RS232 Wacom Graphire, the comments below might be of help. AW

** Updated 27th August 2020 - it appears the Wacom FTP site is no longer reachable. The links to the legacy Windows drivers no longer work. Note also that latest web browsers no longer support FTP in any case.

I am presently experimenting with installing a serial-port Wacom Intuous Graphire onto a new-build Windows 10 PC using legacy drivers that I have on disk.

Note that these legacy tablets can not operate on USB using Serial to USB adaptors. AW

How to share a legacy Wacom Intuos Graphire tablet between a Windows XP and (impossible but true) Windows 7 PC

I have a faithful Wacom Intuos Graphire A5 graphics tablet GD-0608-R which I find much easier to use than a mouse most of the time. It was very expensive in its day (£250) and it’s especially useful in Photoshop, Corel Draw and PaintShop Pro as well as routine word processing or emails.

The tablet has a traditional serial (COM) port not USB and the tablet’s DB9 plug also connects to a 12V mains adaptor, which is where the tablet gets its power from. The Intuos runs fine in Windows XP 32 bit, but I wanted to share it with a Windows 7 (32 bit) PC as well. That wasn’t as simple as it sounded, but I eventually devised a workaround enabling me to share this Wacom Intuos with a Windows 7 Professional 32 bit PC - something that's supposed to be impossible to do.

I found earlier XP drivers did not work in W7 at all. Wacom EU states (Jan 2012) in the Wacom Forum:

Tablets with a serial interface like Intuos and Intuos 2 (or even older) are currently supported under all 32 bit Windows operating systems (XP, Vista). The serial port to connect the tablet needs to be directly on the mainboard. We recommend to use the driver originally delivered with the tablet [didn’t work in W7 – AW]. The last driver with full serial support is version 6.0.5.

• The first driver with support for Windows 7 is 6.1.2. Therefore serial tablets are not supported on Windows 7 computers. [Oh yes they are – read on – AW]
• 64 bit operating systems cannot run a serial interface tablet.
• The usage of a serial-USB adaptor is not supported.

So in several places it’s claimed that this serial tablet could not work in Windows 7. Driver V6.05 was the last version to officially support serial tablets, but the driver was theoretically too old for Windows 7 support. However I decided to try it anyway.

Wacom Intuos Graphire in Windows 7 (32 bit)

Where to get this legacy driver? It was not on the US .com website but Wacom EU had posted a deep link in their forum directly to Pro-605-7_int.exe  (ta-daa!). In fact all Wacom Windows drivers can be found on Wacom Europe’s FTP site or go to the root for other files for Mac, etc.  The 6.05-7_int.exe  file is critical if you want to use an old Wacom Intuos in Windows 7 32 bit, so grab it while you can.

It was fingers crossed whether this driver would work, or I would be doomed ? I downloaded V6.05-7 and found it installed perfectly on Windows 7 Professional (32 bit). It made all the normal ‘I am installing’ noises and then after a reboot I was relieved to see that it was working properly on my COM port. A new item in Windows Control Panel also pulled up the familiar Wacom applet.

Wacom serial tablet control panel applet in Windows 7Very interestingly, Windows 7 also installed extra hardware support which was a very pleasant surprise. For example I could now handwrite text on the graphics tablet for capture by Windows 7 handwriting recognition, which would then enter it directly into a Word text file. A handy new applet opened whenever I wanted to use handwriting. Using V6.05-7 against the odds, Windows 7 had recognised the old serial tablet and automatically installed these extra features perfectly!

Null Modem DB9 Male-Female adaptorThe next problem was how to share the tablet with the Windows XP PC nearby. The obvious way is to use a classic serial data switch to select between the two PC’s serial ports, but (long story short) I also needed a null modem cable to switch over the serial inputs and output lines and then the changeover switch worked perfectly!

An unholy mix of DB9 and DB25 male and female connectors was messy and eventually I swapped the null modem cable for a very cheap DB9 null modem adaptor which eliminated a cable. The serial RS232 changeover switch cost about £10 and the null modem adaptor £1.60 from ebay. The data switch is old 1990s league comms kit but it saves a lot of messing with wires.

Here’s a list of the final setup and parts.

• PC #1 (Windows XP 32 bit) has a DB9 male COM port (A)
• PC #2 (Windows 7 Professional 32 bit) has a DB9 male COM port (B)
• My RS232 Data Switch has 3 x DB25 female ports (IN, OUT A, OUT B)
• 2 x DB25 male to DB9 female serial leads (1.8 metres) connect PC #1 and PC #2 to the A & B ports of the Data Switch.
• A classic DB25 male - DB9 male adaptor converts the Data Switch IN port to a DB9 male receptacle.
• Last of all, the Wacom tablet’s DB9 female plug connects through a DB9 male-to-female null modem adaptor to the Data Switch DB9 IN male receptacle.
• The Wacom plugs into the 12V supply as before.

Now by selecting A or B on the switch the Wacom tablet can be connected to either PC successfully and it works very well under Windows 7 (32 bit). I have no idea whether the same will hold true under Windows 8 yet but the fact that the serial tablet is perfectly supported in Windows 7 (32 bit) has been a great bonus, and hopefully will last me a good few years.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_modem

Update on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 11:52PM by Alan W

It seems the old Wacom FTP site with all the legacy drivers is no more.  They changed the website front-end which has been hit by blocky Windows 10 madness. The ugly new GUI is here: https://www.wacom.com/en-us/support/product-support/drivers

Comments

[bill davis]

Hi Alan;

Great article. I stoped here because I had set myself up to do something similar to your setup.
I was going to use a KVM switch to run both my wip XP computer and my win7 compute. that way I could leave my Wacom 0608 R tablet on the XP system and just switch back and forth between the two units.

I had tried all manner of ideas from other owners who got their system to work on a Win7 64 computer. But none of them worked for me. So I deleted evertything from my Win7 system and
decided to try VMWare as was suggested in one of the forums. I was not hoping for much but here is what I did.

1 I downloded the latest version of VMWare.

2 loaded into a 40 gig virtual disk.

3 next I connected my serial tablet to a usb to serial adapter and Loaded the USB driver from the disk, plugged in the power connector and plugged in the usb cable.

4 I then put my original Wacom install disk in the Dvd player and called it up inside the virtual disk.
NOTE: it is very important that all disk calls are made from within the virtual disk.

5 I installed the Wacom software and Wham my tablet started working.

This was so simple. I cannot believe I did not figure this out a couple of weeks earlier. By the way I absolutely could not get the serial port on the motherboard to work. I might have been because it was a ten pin connector and I had to a add cable and rs232 port.

[TRON]

Almost over 10 years old news.
I happily succeeded in using this GD-0608R(serial type) on "Windows10 64 bit", connected via Serial-USB conversion cable.

So, I did not agree with;
>Note that these legacy tablets can not operate on USB using Serial to USB adaptors. AW

Well, actually the Serial- USB conversin cable is "USB2.0 TO RS232 converter" .

First, I only connected the converter cable to PC, let PC detecting it and wait to install the proper cable driver via the internet.
Device manager should show USB Serial Port(COM　X) in COM & PORT, as well as USB Serial Converter in Universal Serial BUS controller.
The converter cable was ready to work in PC.

Now, shut down PC , shut down Internet Connection.
Then connect "tablet" with DC supply on to the converter cable.
Power on PC showed "WACOM-GD" in other devices of Device Manager.
Now installed the downloaded tablet driver (V612-5 I used) with the compatibility "Windows2000".
Rebooting PC demostrated the tablet sensed the pen I noticed.
So far is the half of the steps to make the tablet work fully via USB to Serial converter cable.

I still needed second driver installation to get "WACOM Pentablet Applet, instaling the driver with the conpatibility "VISTA" this time.
Rebooting PC, now I got the full work of Intuos GD.

Hope this helps to others worrying about the same problem using WACOM legacy tablet on 64 bit PC not equipped with serial port.